Mark Zuckerberg created the sensational Facebook as a sophomore at Harvard University. Originally just for university students around the world, Facebook opened its doors to anyone thirteen years or older on September 26, 2006. Since then the social network has been criticized for issues related to privacy settings and has even admitted that some of the cookies on Facebook could be used to track users after they leave Facebook.

But beyond all of the issues that Facebook may have it is an invaluable tool for keeping in touch friends, wasting time, and sharing photos and links. Facebook has also developed into one of the best sites to stay entertained. Since 2006 there have been quizzes and games on Facebook but recently these games have exploded in quantity and popularity.

Facebook games are constantly changing, whether current features are being updated or new features are being added. The games that are most popular are also changing every year but the ones that in the top ten are almost always from similar types of games. Most people seem to enjoy classic games – like Tetris, Bejeweled, and Angry Birds (a newer classic) – but they also love games that include strategy and building something over time – like CityVille and FarmVille.

The number one game of 2012 is CityVille with 40.9 million users a month and 6.2 million users daily according to Inside Social Games. In the game the Facebook user is the mayor of a small town. As mayor the user must perform tasks to develop and level the city including construction and collecting rent. The user’s friends can also be employed to perform tasks within the town and help the user to level his or her city. With ninety levels, users need all of the help they can get. Although CityVille was launched in 2010 there have been similar games such as FarmVille that have been around even longer.

The second place in most popular Facebook games of 2012 is Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker. Although not an original Facebook creation, the game demonstrates that classic games of the real world do not have to disappear with the internet. With 35 million users in June 2012 alone and 6.9 million daily users, the classic game is, not surprisingly, one of the most commonly played games on Facebook. Inside Social Games claims that Texas HoldEm Poker has a monthly average of 36.7 million users.

Prior to the creation of Texas HoldEm Poker, Bejeweled, Tetris, and many others Facebook had MindJolt Games. Mind Jolt allowed Facebook users to play classic arcade, puzzle, strategy, and sports games that users could play alone or with friends.

In third place is the 2009 game FarmVille. Prior to FarmVille there was FarmTown which was essentially the same game with a different name. FarmVille had about 21.7 million users in June 2012 and has 4.6 million daily users. FarmVille has always been one of the most popular games on Facebook, making the top ten list every year since its inception. In the game users plant crops and trees and take care of animals on his or her own farm. Harvesting crops will get the user in game money that can be used for decorations and new crops. Users can also interact with their friends who can have neighboring farms and help each other with their farms.

In fourth place is the CastleVille is one of Facebook’s more recent games, released in November 2011, and is similar to the other -ville games but includes more strategy. In CastleVille the user rules a kingdom and can do a whole range of things that include making armor, building up a castle, planting crops, and making alliances. CastleVille boasts 5.4 million daily users and 21.1 million users in the month of June 2012 alone.

To learn more see Even More of the Best Facebook Games of 2012!

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I must admit I am no stranger to Zynga games like Farmville and Cityville (although for obvious reasons I have ceased to play Farmville, a fate I worry will eventually befall my current Cityville days). That being said I still find certain aspects of the game, like city planning to be immersive and at times quite satisfying. If so, then why in the world do I feel frustrated with a Zynga game over 50% of the time I play one?

As a serious gamer, you fall in love with a certain aspect of a game and you want more of it. In Cityville that would mean more custom building options for me. City planning is obviously the most engaging and individualistic part of experiencing that game so why doesn’t Zynga turn the dial up a notch?

Well, for one there seems to be a serious imagination deficit at Zynga. Instead of placing their focus on creating good content, the company instead has seemingly geared all its efforts on making money. Relying on money is important, but when it fails to run in tandem with creating things of value you know you have a disaster looming.

Zynga’s micro-payments system is unfortunately too integral to the structure of how their games are built. Instead of being used as an additional feature, micro-payments are designed in the game mechanics in such an arduous way that it becomes the scaffolding of your gaming experience. If people like myself continue to eventually turn away from Zynga games, it won’t be because those games lived out their natural life span, but rather it’ll be because the gaming experience ended up being flawed and unfulfilling.  Dont get me wrong, I am more than happy to financially compensate the creators of a game i enjoy playing. The problem is in the way these games are designed to make money from the ground up.

Instead of rewarding gameplay, Zynga games reward users who do one thing and one thing only, assisting Zynga in making more dough for its investors.

Full disclosure. I am not particularly popular on facebook. I have around 60 friends, only a handful of which play Cityville. No matter how much time I spend playing that game I can never catch up with most of my neighbors, who in turn have no problem leveling their cities up because of their own abundance of neighbors. Its particularly lame because I know that I play more than they do and quite honestly, most of them are owners of aesthetically horrific cities. The reason behind having such a large magnitude of ugly cities could be attributed to Zynga’s unfair reward system. Here’s why. Instead of smart expressions of city planning, most players will hoard every in-game item available to them to create larger cities, an outcome only compounded by the fact that most of those same players have more neighbors, thus more ability to splurge and less incentive to be creative.

Zynga might seem like it is on top of its game right now. There is no doubt that they tapped into the social gaming revolution at the right time and maximized their profits as a result. However they very well might lose out to other game developers who create content that is both richer and more rewarding for the player. In the meantime i will continue to watch my city grow (albeit slower than it deserves), while i keep an eye out for credible Zynga competitors.

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